Reading home crowds continue to fall despite Ruben Selles' side winning 11 of their 12 matches in RG2, with Tuesday's 3-0 victory over Cambridge United witnessed by under 8,500 supporters.

The Royals moved into the play-off places as we approach the festive season after the midweek win over the U's, an 11th league win in 12 fixtures to embark on the best run on home soil since 1993.

However, the given crowd of 8,333- which was much lower in reality- is the lowest turnout since February 2018 when only 6,769 braved the snow for a 3-1 defeat to Sheffield United in the Championship.

Sky Sports' new midweek television deal, the cold weather and apathy surrounding the drawn-out sales process are all reasons given for stayaway supporters, although boss Ruben Selles has recently called for fans to come out and support the players.

(Image: ©Jason Dawson)

"The best thing this football club has right now is the players, a team and the football," he said last week.

"If there is anything about not going because they don’t want to support part of it, I think they need to forget that and come and support the boys. It is very difficult to find a team that is honest in their effort and give 100 per cent- but that is what we are. We can win or lose football matches, but the team represents the city [town] and fans in the best way possible.

"If somebody has some thoughts about not coming and supporting because of what happens around us, I will just say come and support us because those boys are giving absolutely everything and we’re in a position where we are winning more than we are losing."

This is a worrying trend, with the home average crowd now down to 11,849 in League One- almost 2,000 down on last season's average of 13,115 for the first year in the third tier since 2001.

This figure was at 13,449 as the club were relegated from the Championship in 2022/23 and 12,852 for the 2021/22 after a year behind-closed-doors for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Only three attendances fell below 10,000 last season- wins over Carlisle United and Derby County as well as defeat to Fleetwood Town- while this season has already registered two and it is only December.

Home matches against Blackpool, Northampton Town and Mansfield Town are to come before the New Year, with a bumper crowd expected for the visit of the Tangerines due to a Grassroots and School's fixture.